anyone artistic?

[Julian]

err, its photo`s i have.....

does that matter?

Not really, you'll just need to scan them.

[julianf]

I think you need to tell me more!

you have mail

[Julian]

Ged,

It looks like Julianf and I might be singing from the same hymn sheet!

I just need the scans from you and Julianf a lump of brass, to get started.  Might be best to sort out with Julianf what sort of brass ... I'm guessing the softer the better and also what thickness if you want the profile cut to a Niva shape.

Over to you!

[GedsJeep]

email sent


thank you everyone who has helped with kind words and advice.

you are all stars.

ged

[K.H]

Nice one the two Julians

[Julian]

Ged, you have an email with a proof attached ... let me know what you think!

[GedsJeep]

i dont know how that will translate to the brass mate. not being artistic in any way, i cant visualize it.

let me see what i can download and try

[Julian]

Julianf may be able to advise better than me, but basically the black areas will be what's milled away.

[GedsJeep]

right, after messing with a copy of corel photopaint i came up with this.







now i dont know how much work is involved, or if its possible?

and i now have corel photopaint 6 if anyone wants it....

sorry if im not helping.

[GedsJeep]

i have just had this sent to me..



thats pretty much what we want.

is it too much or do able?

something like this








ok, thats the rough idea

is that too complicated?

how will it transfer to the brass

[knighty]

have you thought about asking on reddit ?

and/or do you want me to ask on there ?


there's some pretty frecking awesome photo shop guys on there... and they regularly do things like this
(help people out, restore old photos, edit photos to remove medical equipment out of baby photos etc..)

[julianf]

ok, thats the rough idea

is that too complicated?

how will it transfer to the brass

You have a few options -

Chemical etching will transfer the image pretty much as-is, but you will need someone with a large amount of skill to do the job accurately.  There are not many people around who would be able to do this for you.

Miling will do the job, but also has its issues.  The source file is probably too complex to get a nice result.  Your dependant on cutters etc. and then you will get tool marks.  Im not experienced with this (3d milling with ball nosed cutters etc) but i dont think you would get great results.  This, however, is far more 'general' work, and you could ask about places like, for example, mould makers, to see if they think you would get nice results from your source material.

Engraving (which is what i do) would give you an approximation of what you want, but you need to work on the source material a lot more.  Engraving is, basically, line art, so you would need to convert an image to 2 colour (eg black and white - NOT black, white, and a load of grey tones in between - just two colours) and then trace it to vector.  This would result in something professional looking, but its dependant on the source material, and the amount of work put into it.

Here are a couple of examples -


This image -



was scanned, traced, and a load of the vectors discarded.  It was then cut to these keyrings -




Another example -



Scanned, traced, and cut to this -






The key point with my work is that its lines.  You can get good representations of images, but only with well edited source material.  There is no application that will simply convert an image to nice line art - its manual work with decisions at all stages.

If you can get an image that you are happy with, as line art (vectors - eg plt / hpgl) then i can cut the job, but i cant do anything with bitmap (pixmap) images.



Where's our new new cnc king anyhow?  I cant hear any trumpet at all...

[GedsJeep]

ok, now i sort of understand as i used to use flexi sign for making stickers and the same sort of rules apply.

whats reddit?

[Julian]

Totally agree with what Julianf said.  What I sent you were pure black and white images.  All the half tones in your sketches aren't engraveable ... it's a sort of on or off discipline ie a cut line/area or the original face of the brass.  You'll be amazed what a difference a few half tones make to the way our brains interpret an image.  The software I used was Coreltrace.  That looks at the bitmap, sets a dividing line between light and dark and adjusts the image to give just a black and white result.  In the process you loose a great deal of detail, but do keep the overall impression of the original photo.

Just for the record this was my effort ...



Bear in mind (pun!), this, and what I sent you, is a vector image converted into a jpg bitmap so everyone can view it, hence the line edges will be a little more fuzzy than the original vector.


The sort of engravings you see in old books, which is what I suspect what you were envisaging,  were done by hand direct on to the printing plate and take days, possibly weeks to complete.  Even then if you looked at the plate, it wouldn't be as clear as the black and white print.  Etching may well get closer to what you want, but you still won't see the same contrast on the finished brass as you will in a printed proof.  You can paint or wax fill engraved plates to give a little more contrast, but as you're mounting it out in the elements, that may not be viable.

Still happy to help were I can, but what you're after may be beyond my abilities.

[GedsJeep]

no mate, what you did was great. im just trying to work out how to get them inside the car?

its waayyyyy beyond my grasp mate, so please "bear" with my ignorance.

thanks guys...